Five Years Into Forever
“Shiro! Hey, over here!” Crowed Pidge, dashing across the open pavilion with Hunk, Nadia, and Sylvio barely a step behind her billowing lab coat. “We’re back! Told you we’d make it on time”
Shiro grinned, one arm still around Adam’s shoulder, and he held the other open for his space kids to barrel into, their laughter washing over him like the waves of a fireplace after a day of shoveling the yard.
“Hi, you guys!” He managed to get out between laughs as Nadia and Sylvio whined about not getting enough of their space abuelo to cuddle! “How are you all doing? Still cutting it close, I see.”
“Hey, at least we’re not the ones getting married,” shot back Pidge, punching his arm with a grin as she stepped back to let the twins tackle Shiro. “Keith and Lance are still handling that rogue Olkari drone, they literally sent us here to stall.”
“They would,” groaned Adam, raising his eyes to the heavens as he caught his space kids in a tight hug. “I warned them to take the day off, but does anyone listen to Adam? Noooooooo.”
Allura cackled as she swept over, her hand intertwined with Acxa’s and a fresh kiss on her glowing Altean marks.
“Dare I even ask if our brothers are getting ready?” She teased, hip-checking Hunk and running through Pidge’s complicated handshake without blinking. “Or do I need to ask Red to drag her two old paladins down by the ear?”
“Nah, Hunk and I are master stallers,” replied Pidge with a puff of her chest. “Plus, the great and mighty Queen of the Voltron Alliance need not trouble herself with such peasantry matters.”
Allura snorted, ruffling Pidge’s unruly boyish bob cut as the smaller girl screeched in protest.
“Oh please, you just don’t want me to start teasing you about your new boyfriend Bandor~”
“Hey, shut up!”
Shiro chuckled, leaning into Adam’s side as the excited chatter of his family surrounded him once more. He had missed them. Sure, retiring from space life had its perks (namely, no more 3 am singing from whatever room had been infected with Lanceitis that night), but Shiro knew that he couldn’t stay away from it much longer.
After Voltron had destroyed the core that had been infecting the comet, it was apparently finally able to assume its true form: the mate of the White Lion. It had been tearing through realities to get back to its partner when the Galra had captured it, and had hidden away the bulk of its powers in an attempt to keep Haggar from infecting it. But, when Kitron’s quintessence reverted the corruption back to its pure state, White had been able to absorb the paladins and shield them from the subsequent explosion. Although getting it to let them go, according to Lotor, Coran, and Adam, had been…an experience.
Shiro laughed as Matt waved them over, his arm snugly linked with Nyma’s, and Lotor’s generals gathered in a bubbling circle around the two. Curtis and Kuron were smiling tenderly at one another, matching rings glinting around their fingers, and Narti’s arm was snug around Queen Romelle’s waist. To say that a few things had changed after the war ended would be the understatement of the year.
“Nooooo, Allura, no politics during your brother’s wedding!” Protested Hunk as Allura pulled Romelle aside, hushed words passing between the Alteans, probably about the latest trade deal.
“They’re not here yet, shush,” replied Allura with a teasing wave of her hand. “Sweetie, you mind taking it from here?”
“Not a problem, love,” replied Acxa, dropping a kiss on Allura’s cheek and sweeping past to high-five Narti, sliding into a light conversation with the Queens of New Altea.
With the threat of Zarkon and Honerva gone, the Altean colony was able to come out of the quantum abyss and take up its predecessor's role in politics. And, although Lotor had nominated Allura to become its Queen, she had stepped aside for Romelle’s reign. For the one who had left behind her home and loved ones to find out about the outside world, who had entered a war zone to earn her people’s freedom, who had grown up alongside the people she would govern. After all, being the Queen of Altea was my dream as a child, not that of New Altea. The universe has moved forward since then, and I need to as well. After all, an Alliance this big will need a few Queens at the helm, don’t you think?
“Abuelo, we’re almost done packing,” squealed Nadia, a huge grin pushing her freckles across her cheeks like stars shooting across the sky as she pulled back to look up at her space grandpa. “Are you almost finished? You’re still going to be learning with us about the Nebula Palace, right?”
“Yeah, don’t back out now,” whined Sylvio, sticking out his lower lip and making those chocolate eyes the size of moons. “Our papis' have been looking forward to you coming back!”
Shiro chuckled, ruffling their hair.
“Don’t worry, you two. A five year break is a five year break, and even I get rusty, you know? Plus, I’ve only ever visited the Nebula Palace. I seriously don’t know how they fly that thing without Coran!”
Nadia and Sylvio’s eyes lit up like twin suns, and Shiro’s cheeks started aching at the idea of being back around a team full of these smiles. Adam chuckled beside him, gesturing across the square as a familiar hum followed by a symphony of shrieking began to fill the air.
“Ask him after the ceremony then, if you can pry him away from the kids.”
The Castle of Lions descended, thumping into position at one edge of the pavilion, a thousand tiny hands waving from the windows as countless shoes pounded towards the doors.
“Evasive maneuvers!” Squealed Nadia, grabbing Sylvio’s wrist and tearing away, laughter whipping out in a trail of sparkling lights behind her as she dashed away from the incoming swarm of children.
Sylvio just grinned, keeping pace with his sister and catching Leo’s hand with a fresh peal of giggles as they streaked across the lawn, making a point of plowing through the paparazzi advancing towards Emperor Lotor and Empress Merla’s ship as it descended. Adam laughed, waving them off in their matching suits, and squeezed Shiro’s hand close to his heart.
“They’re so ready to go be gay and torment the garrison.”
“Five gac that Leo’s going to ask Sylvio out before the wedding’s over.”
“Ten gac. He’ll ask him out right before you guys board the Nebula Palace.”
“Deal.”
Shiro cackled, shaking his head as Coran opened the doors to the Castle of Lions, an ocean of alien children spilling free with shrieking adoration and way too many funny dresses. The old advisor was sporting a traditional Altean suit and a soft smile as he lifted a small girl onto his shoulders and led out a row of younger duckling aliens into the crowd. The Castle of Lions had become firmly planted on New Altea but, since they already had a royal palace, Coran had been the first to suggest that it be turned into an orphanage. With the war finally over, there were more orphans than anyone could count, and who better to look after them than Voltron’s favorite space uncle?
“Top of the afternoon to you!” Cheered Coran, scurrying over to the two men with at least four kids clinging to his legs, two hanging off his back, one on his shoulders, and one miraculously pirouetting atop his head. “How are you two faring? It feels like it’s been decaphoebs since we last caught up, how has the married life treated you?”
“It’s treated me to candlelit pizza dinners, showers at midnight, and a new garden with extra bees,” teased Adam, kissing Shiro’s cheek shamelessly. “So, perfectly.”
Shiro dissolved.
Coran chuckled as the oldest of their paladins buried his face into his husband’s shoulder with a blushing whine, amber eyes softening as fresh laugh lines carved themselves into Shiro’s cheeks. It was like watching one of his kids reach out to him for the first time, letting Coran hold them close and wash away even just a little bit of their shadows, letting love slip into the cracks in their life and fill them in with gold. After all, he was the one standing beside Shiro as they launched the newly built Nebula Palace into space with their family inside, he and Adam were the only ones who had seen the silent tears on Shiro’s cheeks. Just because his choice was right didn’t mean it was easy.
“Coran!” Cried Allura, smile blinding as she dashed into his embrace, circlet catching the light and Altean gown shimmering next to his suit. “I have missed you so much!”
“I have missed you too, Allura,” he murmured, holding her close. “But you have been doing most excellently! Both the Queen of the Voltron Alliance and part of the best Exploration Team in the universe? Your parents would be proud.”
Allura pulled back, eyes gleaming in time with the ring on her finger that matched her wife’s, the only remains of her parents that had been salvaged after the destruction of her homeworld.
“Thank you, Coran. And they would be proud of you too.”
The paladins hadn’t been able to stay still for long and, barely six phoebs after the defeat of the comet and restoration of peace, Keith and Lance had come forward with a preposition. Pre-emptive peace, that needs to be our next goal. We may have finally gotten unity in our known universe, but there’s always more out there. Instead of staying in the unknown, let’s spread out and make peace with threats before they can hurt us. Voltron’s job is to bring peace, after all, so let’s make it a lasting peace.
Pidge’s full-blown cackle echoed over to the adults, and Coran threw back his head with a laugh as he saw their youngest paladin picking up her boyfriend by the waist and spinning him around in a circle of screeches. Bandor had been the only person who was not originally in the Voltron family to join the paladins in their exploration throughout the universe; he was just as curious as his sister if not more, and his technological babble aligned with their Green Paladin’s like two hearts beating in unison. They tended to wake up early for pancake dates, according to Allura and Lance.
Hunk just shook his head with a smile, one arm tight around his fiance. Shay had joined Matt, Krolia, and Azve in transforming the Blade of Marmora into a humanitarian organization after the war ended, though she had quickly discarded their dark armor in favor of her planet’s bright colors and loose traditional outfits. A crown of flowers nestled gently atop her head as she snuggled into Hunk’s embrace, a quiet song vibrating through her smile and one hand tight in his. She had become one of the top “Blade operatives” (a title she was still fighting to change because seriously?) and was almost as busy as Hunk recently. But that never stopped them from coming home to one another at the end of the quintant.
After all, although the paladins’ home was up on the Nebula Palace in space, they had families throughout the universe. And, somewhere along the way, their job as the “top Exploration Team in the universe” had become almost like a 9-5 job. Pidge and Coran had picked Lotor and Romelle’s brains on the wormholes they had used to move the Alteans through the Quantum Abyss and, by the time the Nebula Palace was given the green light by Sam Holt, they had transformed the Lions’ Hangar in the Castle of Lions into a wormhole station. Portals connected directly into it not only from the bay of the Nebula Palace, but also from Earth, the Balmera, Olkari, and anywhere else that had agreed to serve as an escape route for the Paladins of Voltron.
Plus, with the mate of the White Lion blessing Coran, Lotor, and Adam for fighting to get the Paladins back, the nine of them were able to connect telepathically to one another at will. So, if quintessence corruption was spreading towards the Puigians or if Sylvio was feeling sick and needed to go home for the day, Coran or Shiro could summon back any of the paladins. Lance and Keith used the wormholes most often, vanishing back to Earth as soon as the kids’ school let out to bring them home. And, although they always left someone on night shift, it was an unspoken rule that Keith and Lance were left out of that exchange, especially with Pidge and Bandor’s dislike for leaving the ship at night. The Nebula Palace ran on the quintessent link it shared with the two White Lions, and she wasn’t fond of leaving the safety of their home up to such a “fickle mechanism.” Allura and Hunk were both comfortable filling in on night shift duty, though they loved nothing else than going home to their loved one’s embrace, and often brought them back to the Nebula Palace to spend the night. But, now that Nadia and Sylvio were joining them (for a “training internship”) and with recent positive pregnancy tests for both Allura and Acxa, Keith and Lance had paid the last rent on their apartment and remodeled their room on the Nebula Palace.
Finally, Hunk could just lean against Shay and breath easy. Everything was falling into place.
“Pidge, put your boyfriend down before he throws up,” teased Shiro, sauntering over with an arm around Adam, and Hunk couldn’t help the faintest smirk that touched his lips.
Everyone looked exactly like the Lions had predicted the last time they had needed to form Voltron in a battle, a full five decaphoebs ago. Although the paladins had formed Kitron multiple times since then, it had been purely for hand-to-hand battles or when they just wanted the warmth and comfort that came with that connection, they had yet to need Voltron in a true battle. The bonds they shared with their Lions was more than enough to handle the threats they faced nowadays.
“No, I can see really far up here,” cried Bandor, snapping pictures as Pidge hauled him up higher, and Shiro just laughed with a faint shake of his head. “Adam, your arrangements of the flowers are truly exceptional!”
“I could not agree more,” said Allura, adjusting Pidge’s bow tie as her little sister spun Bandor around. “Are you absolutely sure you will not be joining us aboard the Nebula Palace? We have a most elaborate garden now due to Lan’s efforts.”
Adam chuckled, adjusting his glasses and smiling tenderly as Shiro’s shoulders sagged.
“I would love to, truly. But I just got a call a few vargas ago about that job interview, and it looks like I’m going to be taking over Sanda’s position in the Garrison.”
Shiro sighed, but Adam just leaned over and pecked his cheek tenderly. “This time, I can keep an eye on you all for sure. I’m not going to let anyone go missing like that again.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” promised Shiro, pulling Adam’s clasped hand in his up to his lips and bestowing a sweet kiss upon the ring glowing there. “And I’ll always come home, promise.”
Allura smiled, and Pidge set Bandor down with a shared grin as Shay waved Krolia over and Lotor managed to escape the paparazzi with his new wife in tow. Ezor and Zethrid’s death glares might have had something to do with it, the twins’ giggles echoing near the generals as they snuck Leo over to the snack table.
“Ah, Shiro, it’s nice to see you again,” called Krolia, pressing her forehead to his in their usual greeting before knocking her forehead against Adam’s as hard as they both could. “As annoying as ever, Wazir.”
“You’re one to talk with that titanium forehead!” Shot back Adam. “Careful or I’ll spray paint your ship, and I promise you my sense of colors hasn’t changed much in a few decaphoebs!”
“How did my future son-in-law end up with such a good sense of fashion with you as his role model?”
Adam just held up a neon green flower clip in response, and Krolia hissed at it. “Back, demon.”
Shiro rolled his eyes as the two of them went at it again, and Pidge bounced over to Hunk to run some code by him. Shay chuckled, swishing over to stand beside him, the twins practically materializing in her arms as soon as they spotted her.
“Are you going to be okay?” She asked carefully. “From what Hunk has told me, I understand this day could be very…emotional for you and Keith.”
Shiro held up his white handkerchief in response.
“Yeah…he asked me to walk him down the aisle. I’m not even going to make it there without crying.”
But it wasn’t just Keith that he knew would send him bawling. Although seeing that tiny twelve-year-old with flames sputtering in his eyes and coals searing on his tongue grow up into a protective, gentle, resourceful and brave man had already brought him to tears multiple times, Shiro also knew that seeing Lance like that was going to make him sob. Because all that cocky flirtatiousness, all the facade he maintained to keep the world away from the pain he hid so flawlessly behind a blinding smile and a few finger guns, Lance didn’t wear it like a stiff jacket over his velvet heart anymore. And seeing him let down his walls to hold Keith’s heart close to his own, to stand beside his family honestly, it made him more proud than he had words for. As for how Adam was going to survive……Shiro mourned for that poor excuse for a handkerchief he had.
“Abuelo Shiro!” Screeched Nadia, scampering over with her long ponytail swimming behind her like a koi dancing through water, pointing at the sky as a familiar smile curved over her lips. “Look! Papi and Papi Dos are back!”
Shiro threw back his head, a grin already curving up into his eyes, and heart swelling into his throat as the Black Lion descended. Keith and Lance leaned against the hangar door, waving as the sunset lit up their faces, matching white suits decorated with purple ties and the wind picking at the black cut-out crowns the twins had made that were loose on their foreheads. A blue boutonnière for Lance and a red one for Keith drew grins from their space family, and the Black Lion had a flower garland draped around their neck to celebrate. Keith’s ponytail whipped in the wind as they landed, Lance’s undercut even more loose and blown than usual, and his blossomed Altean markings caught the light in time with Keith’s lasilh.
“Sorry, the heroes always arrive fashionably late,” teased Lance, hopping down from Black and swooping Sylvio and Nadia into his arms. “Did I miss anything other than Tía Allura’s usual gossip?”
“Yep! Tío Hunk had plenty about Rax!” Chirped Sylvio, throwing a wink at Hunk as the paladin threw a hand over his chest with a deep gasp.
“Betrayal!”
“Mijo!” Cried Lance’s mother, bursting out of the car swerving into the parking lot like a deranged missile, and flinging herself into her youngest son’s arms. “I am so glad to see you well! I’m so sorry we’re late, traffic was terrible, I trust we haven’t missed anything?”
“Not a thing, Mami,” promised Lance, crushing her close to him as Keith trapped Acxa and Krolia in a tight hug. “We would never start without you.”
“Yeah, but you also just got here,” teased Pidge, stashing her lab coat hurriedly under the nearest table before dashing over to tackle hug her brothers. “Glad you made it in time! Or I would have had to tell the stories about our late night disco expedition!”
“Pidge! You said you’d take that to the gra—!”
“THAT WAS YOU?!”
Lance punched Pidge’s shoulder lightly, which she returned without hesitation, and Hunk bustled over to lock his two oldest friends in a suffocating hug.
“You’re going to kill it out there, buddy.”
“Yeah, but only if ‘Lura doesn’t kill me first!” Squeaked Lance, tearing out of the way as his sister ripped after him, Keith’s laughter trailing behind his soon-to-be-husband.
Adam chuckled, shaking his head fondly, and Shiro adjusted his tie before turning to Keith with a smile.
“Missed you,” said Keith, cutting Shiro off before he even got a word in, catching the offered hand and pulling him in for a tight hug. “Don’t cry too hard, that suit’s definitely a rental.”
“You are the worst little brother ever and you’ve forgotten that you gave me the power of a best man speech to embarrass you in front of everyone.”
“These guys have seen me shrieking about cryptids at two in the morning after one too many bowls of Lucky Charms with coffee instead of milk, you have nothing on me.”
“Don’t say that with pride.”
Keith drew back with a laugh like wedding bells, and Shiro’s eyes swelled with tears against his will. “Now go get your man, little bro. You two deserve today.”
Keith’s eyes caught the sunlight and swam in it, his bottom lip trembling, and Shiro chuckled as he placed a trembling hand on his little brother’s shoulder.
“Shut up, you’re not allowed to make me cry when Lance is about to be sappy.”
“Yeah, you’re doomed.”
“Yeah. Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Because, how could he? When Lance spun to laugh, fending off their space sister’s attacks, the sunshine transforming everything about him into a pure angel, how could Keith possibly want anything else? When Nadia and Sylvio ran down the aisle throwing flowers, when Allura, Pidge, and Hunk took their places as Lance’s bridesmaids and groomsman, when Shiro, Acxa, and Adam filed in behind Keith, how could he want anything else? Krolia walked down the aisle with the rings, and Matt read out a poem that Keith and Lance had selected ages ago, and Coran stood between the two paladins he had helped raise into men as the officiant to finally tie their love together. How could Keith possibly want anything more than this? Than this beautiful day with the family and the man he loved more than he had thought any heart could?
And, when Lance pulled out his vows, he looked straight into Keith’s eyes with the same fearless heart that he had fallen for back when they first rescued Shiro from that lab. It was the heart that had flown through hell and back with a smile, that had saved people and hugged hope back into them, that had taught not only Keith how much beauty there was in the universe, but also everyone who was lucky enough to run into him, whether as a Paladin of Voltron or a diplomat of the Voltron Alliance.
And, right then, Keith felt like the luckiest man in the whole wide universe to have Lance as all of that combined and a husband as well. Quiznak, he said he wouldn’t cry!
“Keith, you will never stop being a mullet to me, no matter how much you grow out your hair,” started Lance, flashing him a wink before Keith could even begin to think that maybe that prior resolution was attainable. “And, no matter how much you grow with me, I’ll never be able to look at you and see anything other than the man I’ve fallen for. You and I started out rough, we were Lance and Keith, neck and neck, but now we get to be Lance and Keith, hand in hand, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. No matter what we faced down, I always knew I was safe as long as you were there, watching my back.”
From their first battleship to that robobeast on Arus, from a bomb to the freedom of the Balmera, from a berserk castle to a freak wormhole accident……
“You’ve always stood beside me. And, no matter how difficult I could be at times, and no matter how annoying you constantly were,” teased Lance with a smirk, tears already welling in both his and his loved one’s eyes, “even back then, we could never bring ourselves to walk out on each other. Somewhere along the line, I realized that you weren’t like anyone else I had ever met before. You were smart, courageous, and straightforward. You cared about the world around you, about the people who loved you, and about the fate of the universe more than anyone else, and you would do whatever it took to give us all the future we’re standing in today. By the time I became your right-hand man, I already knew I was fighting a hopeless battle against that priceless heart of yours.”
…From the discovery of the Olkari to Allura and Keith’s risky maneuver, from the discovery of Keith’s heritage to their initial destruction of Zarkon, from Shiro’s disappearance to Keith and Lance’s leadership in their first fight with Lotor…
“Keith, you have always been the only one for me. When you left for the Blades, I finally realized that I was never going to meet anyone like you again and, even if I did, it wouldn’t matter because you already had my heart. Everything we’ve done has led us to this point, so I can’t regret even a tick of it. Whether they were mistakes or not, I wouldn’t change a thing, because, today, I get to call myself the man who makes you smile.”
From Lance’s questioning of his worth on the team to Keith’s departure, from Naxzela to Voltron’s alliance with Lotor, from the Kral Zera to…to everything, no matter what, Lance had been the one constant Keith could always count on.
“Keith, you’re the mulleted light of my life, and I love you. I can’t wait to spend forever hopping around the universe with you, protecting this peace you and I have forged out of love and dedication, and showing anyone and everyone that this is us. You’re the Vol to my Tron. And, on my life, I swear I will make you the happiest person to ever live,” stated Lance, staring straight at Keith like both of them weren’t dissolving into tears with every word. “I will always be there for you. Hey man,” he managed, cupping Keith’s cheek and wiping away the tears mirroring his own even as he gave the brightest smile anyone had ever seen, “we make a pretty good team. And I know we’re going to make even better husbands. I love you, now and forever, Keith.”
Keith drowned in his words, tears overflowing and hiccups shaking his chest, and clasped Lance’s hand like it was a lifeline.
“You idiot,” he choked out, violet eyes swimming with the blue of his eternal love’s as he returned that smile brighter than the sun. “Shut up and kiss me already.”
And, as Coran gestured for them to proceed, Keith and Lance sealed the vow they had forged through fire and blood, through ice and steel, through every action they had lived by for the last seven years, with a soft kiss.
And, with their family cheering around them, the Lions roaring along the beachfront, and an eternity of love awaiting them, Keith and Lance turned towards their future with a single heartbeat uniting them with their loved ones, and matching rings glinting around their fingers.
“This…” breathed Lance and Keith together, their voices merging into that of their space family’s and their smiles outshining any sun they would ever discover or had ever seen.
Six hearts beat as one, filled with the peace they had fought for, the peace they would never lose again, the peace of knowing that, no matter what came next, they could handle it with heads held high and smiles unbreakable. They were Voltron, after all. And Kitron would never be far behind.
“This is perfect.”